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Giles Milton
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Big Chief Elizabethby Giles MiltonISBN 0340748826 (0-340-74882-6)
Softcover, Hodder & Stoughton Canada
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Big Chief Elizabeth: The Adventures and Fate of the First English Colonists in Americaby Giles MiltonISBN 0312420188 (0-312-42018-8)
Softcover, Picador USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Big Chief Elizabeth: The Adventures and Fate of the First English Colonists in America'Book summary:The follow up to his best-selling Nathaniel's Nutmeg, Giles Milton's Big Chief Elizabeth is a sprawling, ambitious tale of how the aristocrats and privateers of Elizabethan England reached and colonized the "wild and barbarous shores" of the New World. Milton's story ranges from John Cabot's voyage to America in 1497 to the painful but ultimately successful foundation of the English colony at Jamestown by 1611. However, the main focus of the book is Sir Walter Raleigh's elaborate and tortuous attempts to establish an English settlement on Roanoke Island, in present-day North Carolina, following the first English voyage there in 1584. Scouring contemporary travel accounts of the period, Milton creates a colorful and entertaining account of the greed, confusion, and misunderstanding that characterized English relations with the Native Americans, and the violent and tragic conflict that often ensued.
Milton has a good eye for a surreal or comical story, such as the colony's first encounter with Big Chief--or Weroanza Wingina, whose exotic title "quickly captured the imagination of the English colonists, and they began referring to their own queen as Weroanza Elizabeth." The Elizabethan cast is also dazzling: the flamboyant and ambitious Walter Raleigh, who provided the money behind the Roanoke ventures; the "sober" ascetic scholar Thomas Hariot, who provided the brains; and hardened adventurers, like Arthur Barlowe and Ralph Lane, who provided the muscle. The myths and stories also come thick and fast, from John Smith and Pocahontas, to the importation of the fashion of "drinking tobacco," but the problem with Big Chief Elizabeth is that it lacks a central driving story. In the end, it reads like an entertaining, but rather labored jog through early Anglo-American history, something that has been done with greater skill and originality by, for one, Charles Nicholl in his fascinating book The Creature in the Map. Those who enjoyed Nathaniel's Nutmeg will probably like Big Chief Elizabeth, but with some reservations. --Jerry Brotton, Amazon.co.uk [via]
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Edward Trencom's Noseby Giles MiltonISBN 0312377592 (0-312-37759-2)
Softcover, Griffin
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Edward Trencom's Nose'Book summary:[via]Situated on Londons Foster Lane, there is a quintessentially Georgian, redbrick house with a green door bearing the sign trencoms, 1662. Its the home of the Trencom familys cheese store, a generational establishment begun by Humphrey Trencom that now, 303 years later, is run by Edward Trencom. Quaint though it may seem, it bears witness to a strange occurrence of accidents that seem to befall every generation of the curd-loving family.&
Edward Trencom has bumbled through life, relying on his trusty nose to turn the family cheese shop into the most celebrated fromagerie in England. This was no ordinary nose, but one long, aquiline, and furnishing the trademark circular bump over the bridge---the very same nose bestowed on all the Trencom men. It was extraordinary, able to discern the composition, maturity, and quality of cheese---and the Trencom noses had sniffed, whiffed, and judged the very best cheeses of the world.
But on an ordinary day, Edwards world is turned upside down when he stumbles across a crate of family papers. To his horror, he discovers that nine previous generations of his family have come to sticky ends because of their noses. When he investigates---despite his grandfathers caveat never to look into the origin of his nose---Edward finds himself caught up in a Byzantine riddle to which there is no obvious answer. And like his ill-fated ancestors, he is hunted down by rival forces whose identity and purpose remain a total mystery.
Trapped between the mad, the bad, and a cheese to die for, Edward Trencoms nose must make a choice---and for the last nine generations it has made the catastrophically wrong decision.
Giles Miltons deliciously comic debut novel is a mouthwatering blend of Tom Sharpe and P. G. Wodehouse. From the noble Roquefort to the piquant Èpoisses, every page is permeated by the pungent odor of cheese.Praise for Giles Milton:
He has a rare ability---a talent for sifting fine pearls from faraway sands and for transmuting the merely arcane into little literary gems.
---Simon Winchester, The Boston Globe
Milton spins a fascinating tale. . . . Exuberantly eccentric characters stride the pages.
---Time magazine on Nathaniels Nutmeg
In an exceptionally pungent, amusing, and accessible historical account, Giles Milton brings readers right into the midst of these colonists and their daunting American adventure.
--- Janet Maslin, The New York Times, on Big Chief ElizabethMore editions of Edward Trencom's Nose:
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Nathaniel's Nutmegby Giles MiltonISBN 0140292608 (0-14-029260-8)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Nathaniel's Nutmeg'Book summary:The tiny island of Run is an insignificant speck in the middle of the Indonesian archipelago--remote, tranquil, and now largely ignored. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, however, Run's harvest of nutmeg turned it into the most lucrative of the Spice Islands, precipitating a fierce and bloody battle between the all-powerful Dutch East India Company and a small band of ragtag British adventurers led by the intrepid Nathaniel Courthope . The outcome of the fighting was one of the most spectacular deals in history: Britain ceded Run to Holland, but in return was given another small island, Manhattan. A brilliant adventure story of unthinkable hardship and savagery, the navigation of uncharted waters, and the exploitation of new worlds, Nathaniel's Nutmeg is a remarkable chapter in the history of the colonial powers. [via]
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Nathaniel's Nutmeg : How One Man's Courage Changed the Course of Historyby Giles MiltonISBN 0340696753 (0-340-69675-3)
Hardcover, Hodder & Stoughton Canada
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Nathaniel's Nutmeg : Or, the True and Incredible Adventures of the Spice Trader Who Changed the Course of Historyby Giles MiltonISBN 0340696761 (0-340-69676-1)
Softcover, Hodder & Stoughton Canada
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Nathaniels Nutmeg Posterby Giles MiltonISBN 0340744995 (0-340-74499-5)
Hodder General Publishing Division
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Riddle and the Knightby Giles MiltonISBN 0340819456 (0-340-81945-6)
Softcover, Hodder & Stoughton Canada
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Riddle and the Knight'Book summary:Sir John Mandeville, a medieval English knight, was either one of history's greatest explorers or one of its greatest liars, depending on how one reads the pages of his Travels. Christopher Columbus took his words as a veritable guidebook, using it, Giles Milton writes, to convince the Spanish crown to fund his American voyages. The Victorians were not so kind, dismissing the wanderer--who, after all, wrote that in the Indian Ocean "there is a race of great stature, like giants ... they have one eye only, in the middle of their foreheads"--as an uncritical fabulist at best, a charlatan at worst.
Giles Milton, a student of exploration history, gives us reasons aplenty to question Mandeville's accuracy at points, but he is inclined to think that the knight actually did see at least some of the things he reported in his enormously influential book. Tracing Mandeville's trail to the Middle East and beyond, he considers the historical realities that underlie Mandeville's tales, from the gems that lie strewn among the reeds of Indonesia (which Milton guesses might be crystal-like secretions from bamboo plants) to the fabulous Christian kingdom of Prester John somewhere far out on the plains of Mongolia (where, Milton reminds us, Nestorian Christians were once common). His conclusion, well argued in the course of this witty and delightful book, is that although Mandeville is not always taken literally, he really did go crusading off in distant lands, and he certainly deserves to be rediscovered today, not least for what his work tells us about the medieval mind.
Readers new to Mandeville will find this a spirited introduction, and those already fond of The Travels will enjoy following Milton's parallel voyages. --Gregory McNamee [via]
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The Riddle and the Knight: In Search of Sir John Mandeville, the World's Greatest Travellerby Giles MiltonISBN 031242129X (0-312-42129-X)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Riddle and the Knight: In Search of Sir John Mandeville, the World's Greatest Traveller'Book summary:Sir John Mandeville, a medieval English knight, was either one of history's greatest explorers or one of its greatest liars, depending on how one reads the pages of his Travels. Christopher Columbus took his words as a veritable guidebook, using it, Giles Milton writes, to convince the Spanish crown to fund his American voyages. The Victorians were not so kind, dismissing the wanderer--who, after all, wrote that in the Indian Ocean "there is a race of great stature, like giants ... they have one eye only, in the middle of their foreheads"--as an uncritical fabulist at best, a charlatan at worst.
Giles Milton, a student of exploration history, gives us reasons aplenty to question Mandeville's accuracy at points, but he is inclined to think that the knight actually did see at least some of the things he reported in his enormously influential book. Tracing Mandeville's trail to the Middle East and beyond, he considers the historical realities that underlie Mandeville's tales, from the gems that lie strewn among the reeds of Indonesia (which Milton guesses might be crystal-like secretions from bamboo plants) to the fabulous Christian kingdom of Prester John somewhere far out on the plains of Mongolia (where, Milton reminds us, Nestorian Christians were once common). His conclusion, well argued in the course of this witty and delightful book, is that although Mandeville is not always taken literally, he really did go crusading off in distant lands, and he certainly deserves to be rediscovered today, not least for what his work tells us about the medieval mind.
Readers new to Mandeville will find this a spirited introduction, and those already fond of The Travels will enjoy following Milton's parallel voyages. --Gregory McNamee [via]
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Samurai Williamby Giles MiltonISBN 0340794674 (0-340-79467-4)
Hardcover, Hodder & Stoughton Canada
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Samurai William : The Adventurer Who Unlocked Japanby Giles MiltonISBN 0340794682 (0-340-79468-2)
Softcover, Hodder & Stoughton Canada
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Samurai William: The Englishman Who Opened Japanby Giles MiltonISBN 0142003786 (0-14-200378-6)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow And Islam's One Million White Slavesby Giles MiltonISBN 0312425295 (0-312-42529-5)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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White Gold : The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and North Africa's One Million European Slaves X50 3by Giles MiltonISBN 0340794704 (0-340-79470-4)
Softcover, Hodder & Stoughton Canada
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White Gold : The Forgotten Story of North Africa's European Slavesby Giles MiltonISBN 0340794690 (0-340-79469-0)
Hardcover, Hodder General Publishing Division
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